What did you do in the garden today?

[Molpet]

About mice...I had a bad mouse infestation once. As soon as I changed the pens to the 1/2" welded wire, no more mice came in.

1/2 HWC mouse catcher

I thought the chickens would eat it but they haven't and I can't easily reach it.

 

[TJAnonymous]

The

Huge black snake...I forgot about the time, long ago, a large black snake did get into the old pigeon loft. One morning I saw a dead pigeon on the floor, it's head looked odd, like it was wet. When I looked closer, the neck seemed stretched & the dead pigeon's head, neck right up to where wings began, was...slimed? I was freaked out, what happened, then it hit me, something tried to swallow this bird & suffocated it. Sure enough I searched & found a large snake coiled up napping in a corner. That was my old coop & he slithered right in between the wire pen outside! (This was before I switched to half inch space welded wire). Took that fat thing for a long one-way relocation ride, too. The pigeon he smothered was a sweet special needs boy, a little simple minded but friendly as can be. I was so Ticked Off.

About mice...I had a bad mouse infestation once. As soon as I changed the pens to the 1/2" welded wire, no more mice came in. I caught the rest with the battery traps that zap, & zapped 34 of them. No mice since then. No snakes in the pigeon loft or coop or pens either. That small hole welded wire is great. I realize rodents can gnaw through wood if they really want to get in. I try not to let any feed be available. That works for pigeons as they eat what they need but chickens need to peck all day long. Their feed is in feeders inside the coop. So far, I've been very lucky. Mice or rats are nasty critters. The foxes hunt them & I see them pouncing & catching various mice, moles & voles, so I hope they keep up with rodent patrol. So far so good.

The mice around my coops are living underneath them and/or coming through the coop door in the daytime.

One coop is built on top of pallets. I used subfloor on top of the pallet. The rats/mice have chewed through a spot where two subfloor pieces join together.

The other coop is on a concrete pad. The mice have actually tunneled underneath the concrete. Pretty sure they are coming in the door in the daytime.

There's also tons of underground tunnels around the whole area. I have 2 barn cats who do try to catch them but I think there's too many for them to make much of a dent.

 

[cj2024]

I need to take a page out of your book & do this, too!

Hello, I got inspired by this lady, she has another video on how to maintain a sour dough starter. An important point of this video is to use unbleached flour. The bad comments I see under the starter culture on amazon is probably due to the flour they used. Easy Peezy

 

[Eagle343]

Added additional hive bodies, painted three more groups of boxes, and harvested my first

bunch of asparagus from the bed.

 

[cj2024]

I reach the point where I don't eat my ripe sun gold and sun sugar cherry tomatoes anymore, so I got an idea to use them for sauce and I am glad I did. I put a bowl of cherry tomatoes and one medium size red tomato in my blender with garlic and onions. Then I reduced the liquid out on the stove with chicken bouillon, mushroom extract, salt, fresh Greek oregano, dry Italian season, butter and heavy whipping cream to taste. This is how pizza sauce should be made, they are missing the cream.

 

[cj2024]

I’ve being doing sourdough for years now however my original culture that I made from scratch finally died of neglect. I purchased some San Francisco starter, I think it was likely 2 years ago and I really like it. I’m being more attentive to this culture. Good luck with your baking.

It's on my bucket list, this is something I must try.

 

[fuzzi]

It's been dry for "a spell" here, negligible rain, so I have been watering, every other day.

Lots of pea blossoms today:

Squash looking good, too:

 

[WthrLady]

Our place is lined and up the walls with 1/2 inch welded wire. The mice fly through it no problem.
The snake has moved on to the barn. I no longer smell it in the coop, but I do in the barn. He can eat all the ground squirrels and mice he wants. I don't mind snakes. They just smell.

 

[TJAnonymous]

Our place is lined and up the walls with 1/2 inch welded wire. The mice fly through it no problem.
The snake has moved on to the barn. I no longer smell it in the coop, but I do in the barn. He can eat all the ground squirrels and mice he wants. I don't mind snakes. They just smell.

If they didn't eat my eggs, I'd let ours stick around too... Especially since I don't have any baby chicks this year. Trying to reduce my flock size...

 

[NewBoots]

GAH, I've fallen behind again!

Got the messiest raised bed cleared out but there was so many weeds and grasses to pull, the level has dropped a lot. I think I'll buy some of the crummy bagged soil from a local store and dump all of last years pots, and empty the left over compost tea solids in there as well. I might even scoop up some of the composted stuff from the run. It's the bed intended for green beans and pickling cucumbers so I need to get it going.

We got a nasty late frost the other night and that killed the Better Boy tomato that I had rolled the dice on. No one to blame but myself.

Scarlette had a litter of either 7 or 8 kits last night and they seem hale and hearty. This is only her second litter and while she lost her first litter it wasn't her fault. We had a mixup with her breeding date and the nest box wasn't in her hutch. We felt terrible and she was clearly upset. Poor girl.